Artificial ear-drum



(No Model.)

H. A. WALES.

ARTIFICIAL EAR DRUM. No. 335,660. Patented Feb. 9, 1886.

, .fi W Wag UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

HARRY A. \VALES, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

ARTIFICIAL EAR-DRUM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 335,660, dated February 9, 1886,

Application tiled May 11,1885. Serial No. 165,036. No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HARRY A. Wants, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county ofFairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Artificial Ear-Dru ms and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide an artificial ear-drum which will relieve deafness to a greater extent than has ever heretofore been accomplished,which may be readily inserted or withdrawn without difiiculty and without the slightest pain to the wearer, and which shall be wholly invisible upon the outside. It is of course well understood that the aural passage is extremely sensitive to the insertion of any foreign body, this being the case even when the tympanum or drum of the ear has been seriously injured or even destroyed.

It has been a serious objection to artificial ear-drums as heretofore constructed that they have been complicated and (lifiicult to manage, and, owing to rigid metallic parts, have caused serious inconvenience and frequently great pain to their users. The essential requirements of artificial ear drums are, that they shall be soft and flexible, easy to insert and withdraw, invisible, and that they shall have no metallic or rigid parts. In order to produce a device of this class which shall be thoroughly effective to receive the waves of sound and transmit them to the auditory nerves, and which shall be invisible, free from metal, and easy to manage-which shall, in short, avoid all the objections enumerated ab0veI have devised the simple and novel construction which I will*now proceed to describe, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective of the simplest form of the device complete; Fig. 2, a similar View, but slightly modified, a withdrawingcord being made part of the device. Figs. 3 and 4 are respectively side and plan views, showing the manner in which my improved drum is seized by a pair of aural forceps for the purpose of insertion; and Fig. 5 illustrates a hook which may be used for withdrawing it when no cord is used.

A is the drum, which consists of a single thin flexible disk of rubber, preferably provided with one or more small openings, B, for the purpose of ventilation, and C is a loop made integral with or attached to the drum. In practice I make the loop of rubber and mold it integral with the drum.

D is a cord, which may or may not be attached to the loop.

To insert the artificial drum in place, the two opposite outer sides of the loop are grasped by a pair of ordinary aural forceps,E. Upon compressing the forceps the drum will assume substantially the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4. When grasped in this manner, it may be readily inserted in the ear, owing to its extreme pliability. In the act of insertion the edges may become turned backward. The other end of the forceps, or any suitable smooth instrument, may then be inserted and the edges pushed forward, the operation be ing perfectly painless. Ordinarily, however, after the drum has been inserted as far as may be desired and is released, it will be thrown to its proper position by loop 0, which acts as a spring to expand the drum, so that it will fully fill the auditory passage, its edges being in contact with the walls of the passage entirely around it.

It will be seen that I wholly do away with the rigidity which is a feature of all artificial drums heretofore devised, and also with the danger to the natural parts which is inseparable from the use of central wires. Moreover, by doing away with the central wires the sensitiveness of the drums is greatly increased, as they do not have to carry any superfluous weight.

\Vhen the cord is used, the end may be pushed in just out of sight, but where it can be readily reached when it is desired to withdraw the drum. \Vhen it is preferred not to use a cord, the drum is used precisely as shown in Fig. 1, and may be readily withdrawn at any time by using a hook, F, (see Fig. 5,) which readily catches the loop.

I do not,0f course,desire to limit myself to Lil the exact construction shown, as it is obvious ple, a flexible loop-whereby it may be inthat the details may be varied within reasonserted or removed. I3 able limits without departing from the spirit In testimony whereof I affix my signature in of my invention. presence of two witnesses.

5 I claim- HARRY A. \VALES.

An artificial ear-drum consisting solely of Witnesses: a thin flexible disk of rubber provided with A. M. WOOSTER, a device made integral therewithfor exam- A. B. FAIRCHILD. 

